1. The field of the invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for recording and reproducing pieces of information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Products in which recording mediums, such as hard disks (hereinafter, simply referred to as HD), are mounted have already been in widespread use and are expected to grow into a developing market. The large-capacity recording mediums, such as HDs, are able to provide large-scale information (data) libraries, so that such mediums are epoch-making for the information recording reproducing apparatus.
In such a conventional information recording reproducing apparatus, data recorded on a recording medium is recorded onto a further recording medium such as HD, as the data are reproduced (i.e., outputted as audio information). Such a recording method is adopted by a HDD-mounted type CD player, where there are provided with a player to reproduce audio data recorded on a CD (Compact Disc) serving as a recording-origin medium, an HD on which audio data has been reproduced by the player is recorded, and a hard-disk drive (HDD) to record the audio data on the HD. Thus, while audio data under reproduction is outputted from such a device as speaker, the audio data are concurrently recorded onto the HD.
However, the conventional information recording reproducing apparatus has been confronted a difficulty in recording data (such as audio data) on a recording medium (such as HD). That is, in such an occasion, if a user wants to search data to be reproduced arbitrarily (i.e., outputted as sound) on a recording-origin medium and record the searched data onto an HD from start to finish, the recording operation which has now progressed should be stopped for searching the data. As a result, the data is obliged to be recorded on the recording medium in a half-way manner. Re-starting the recording operation toward the recording medium from the half-recording condition requires that various cumbersome work be done, which includes deletion of such half-recorded data and setting of connection positions of the data to be subjected to the re-start of the recording operation.